LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mandy Pope, clad in her hot pink stable colors that Irad Ortiz Jr. had just worn while piloting Leslie’s Rose to a Grade 1 Ashland Stakes victory at Keeneland, couldn’t keep her eyes off her filly as the replay rolled on a nearby screen. “The way she came through there, and was brave,” Pope narrated as Leslie’s Rose made her move between horses. “The way she just charged through there, oh my gosh, just watching it again sends chills up you. I just – look at her go! She’s just awesome.” All eyes will be on Leslie’s Rose as the filly, winner of one of the deepest prep races assembled this spring, starts in the Kentucky Oaks on May 3. Leslie's Rose is living up to the potential Pope saw when she went to $1.15 million to purchase her from Glennwood Farm at the 2022 Keeneland September yearling sale. She will be one of the most expensive 3-year-olds expected to run in the spring classics at Churchill Downs. After Leslie’s Rose, the most expensive horse targeting the Kentucky Oaks is Our Pretty Woman, who cost $900,000 at that same Keeneland September sale. Sierra Leone leads the projected Kentucky Derby field by price tag, as he topped the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale at $2.3 million. Behind him, a trio of colts targeting the Derby brought a half-million or more at Keeneland September - $575,000 for Catching Freedom, $500,000 for Just Steel, and $500,000 for Track Phantom.  :: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.  Pope's keen eye for Thoroughbreds has been honed through several decades with the industry. While she made her living working with her family’s Variety Wholesalers, which operates a chain of discount stores, she began working with broodmares at the late George Steinbrenner’s Kinsman Stud in Ocala, Fla., in 1980, and later managed broodmares and stallions at Heather Hill Farm. She formed her Whisper Hill Farm with her father, the late John Pope, and today owns a farm in Ocala, where her young horses receive their initial training, and boards her broodmares and foals in Kentucky. She has a particular soft spot for fillies, and is a determined bidder when chasing quality stock. Her broodmare band over the past decade has included mares like Horse of the Year Havre de Grace (a $10 million purchase), champions Groupie Doll ($3.1 million) and Songbird ($9.5 million), Kentucky Oaks winners Plum Pretty ($4.6 million) and Shedaresthedevil ($5 million), and Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Unrivaled Belle ($3.8 million). With those stellar performers, Whisper Hill’s program embodies the old, well-known creed ‘breed the best to the best, and hope for the best.’ The long game is starting to pay off. Pope’s silks have appeared in the Kentucky Derby the past two years – first with homebred multiple graded stakes winner Charge It, 17th in 2022, and last year with the pricey yearling purchase Tapit Trice, a Grade 1 winner who was seventh in Louisville before running third in the Belmont Stakes. “It’s different, but they’re equally as exciting,” Pope said of competing at racing’s highest levels with a homebred versus a horse she purchased. Even as Pope continues to be a major player on the auction scene – chasing fillies to race and eventually add to her broodmare band, as well as colts to race – Whisper Hill’s well-bred stock has grown to be in hot demand from others on the bidding bench. Pope was among the leading breeders at the 2023 Keeneland September yearling sale, breeding four seven-figure yearlings, and co-breeding another. Leslie’s Rose, for whom Pope stretched to seven figures in her bidding, is from another stellar program whose stock is in demand. The daughter of five-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief – looking for back-to-back Oaks winners after being represented by 2023 victress Pretty Mischievous – was bred and raised at John and daughter Tanya Gunther’s Glennwood Farm, best known for breeding Triple Crown winner Justify. “She was very levelheaded,” Pope recalled of the filly at the sale. “She wasn’t overly big, but she was put together right, and she was light on her feet. Thought she’d come to hand easily, which she did. Very much like her breeding.” Leslie’s Rose is out of the unraced Galileo mare Wildwood Rose, a half-sister to 2015 Florida Derby winner Materiality and to 2014 Kentucky Oaks runner-up My Miss Sophia. The latter, a Grade 2 winner on dirt and Grade 1-placed on turf, is the dam of turf Grade 1 winner Annapolis. Another half-sister to Wildwood Rose, Lilies So Fair, is the dam of current Kentucky Derby hopeful Grand Mo the First, who was third in the Florida Derby. This is the extended family of Travers Stakes winner Afleet Express and Alabama Stakes winner Embellish the Lace. “She had a huge walk, and she comes from such a good family,” John Gunther recalled of the young Leslie’s Rose at the sale. “There were a lot of people on this filly. A lot of vet work. People just loved this filly. The reserve was well under her price.” Leslie’s Rose, who received her early lessons from Pope’s general manager and farm trainer Todd Quast before going to Todd Pletcher at the racetrack, has both strong dirt and turf influences in her pedigree. “Being out of a Galileo mare, you never know if they’re going to end up turf or dirt,” Pope said. “So we just let her tell us what she wanted to do. Todd Quast did a wonderful job with her at the farm, and (so did) Todd Pletcher training her up to race.” Leslie’s Rose won her first two starts before finishing third in the Grade 2 Davona Dale Stakes, a race in which her connections thought she might have been intimidated while racing inside horses. She showed she benefitted from that experience in the Ashland, as she split horses while driving to a three-length win. “She’s such a beauty – she was awesome,” Tanya Gunther said on social media. Now, Pope will watch at the Oaks as Leslie’s Rose carries her silks postward. Watching them flash past the winning post would be “overwhelming,” the owner said. “Oh man, it’s awesome,” Pope said. “It’s just overwhelming. Very blessed to be here, and very thankful to all the connections that have made it possible.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.